Growing Crops

Raising crops in your fields is a large aspect of any Harvest Moon game. In this version, the
location of your farm will determine how much space you have available for growing crops. The
farm in Bluebell Town has very small crop fields while the farm in Konohana Town has a few smaller
fields and one really large field.

You can use either towns' fields regardless of where you are living.
For example, if you are living in Bluebell Town you can grow crops in the larger Konohana Town
field. The only downside is that you have to travel all the way to Konohana Town to water and
harvest your crops.

Buying Seeds

Crop seeds can be purchased at Gombe's
Crop Store. His shop is open at 10:00 am, Wednesday through Sunday, excluding festival and
bad weather days.

Gombe's inventory will change seasonally as well as daily. He only sells the seeds that can be
planted in the current season you are in. As the years progress, Gombe will sell new seeds. The
last seeds are available starting in year 3.

Besides the seeds that Gombe sells, you can buy flower seeds from
Cam's flower shop in Bluebell Town. Cam is open starting at 10:00 am on Sunday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Saturday, excluding festivals and bad weather days. Cam's inventory also
changes each day his shop is open, and the last type of seed he sells is available starting
in year 3.

Whether you use crop or flower seeds, each bag of seed contains 1 seed. If you want
to grow 6 Turnips, then you will need to buy 6 bags of Turnip Seeds.

Later in the game you can get the Seed Maker built on your Konohana farm. This will allow you
to turn crops, flowers, fruit, and grains into seeds.

Uncovering The Soil

The first thing you'll need to do is clear the wild grass from your fields in order to uncover
the soil. This can be done by cutting the grass with the Sickle. The cut grass does not
become Fodder for animals.

If you live in Bluebell Town, you will receive a Sickle, Hoe, Watering Can, and 1
Fertilizer from Rutger on Spring 10. If you go through his farming tutorial you will
also receive 1 Turnip Seed to use during the tutorial.

If you live in Konohana Town, you will receive a Sickle, Hoe, Watering Can, and 1
Fertilizer from Ina on Spring 2. If you go through her farming tutorial you
will also receive 3 Turnip Seeds to use during the tutorial.

Once you get the Sickle, look for the tall grass on your farm. If the grass you stand on
doesn't come up to your waist, then it can't be cut down to make a field. Equip the Sickle
and use it on the tall grass to cut it down and exposing the soil underneath.

As you're cutting away the grass, you may find moles that pop up out of the soil. If you
switch tools and use your Hammer or Hoe to hit it, you have a 1% chance of getting
a Carrot, Potato, or Onion.

If you leave the mole alone, it will eventually dig back down into the ground. You
can't befriend the mole like you can with other wild animals.

Digging Holes and Trenches

There are two ways you can plant your seeds; individually in their own spots, or linked together
into rows.

Single-spots are your typical Harvest Moon planting style. Hit the soil with your hoe, move
to the next spot, use your hoe again, and so on. This technique doesn't require anything
special and you don't need to be taught to do it by one of the mayors.

The other way is to tie your soil together using furrows or rows. You will learn about making
furrows from the mayor of the town you are living in. Until you see the tutorial, you can not
link your soil together into furrows. Bluebell farmers will learn about furrows from Rutger on
Spring 16 and Konohana farmers will learn about the technique from Ina on Spring 05.

To make a row in your soil, press A to swing your hoe and then press A
again plus the direction you want to till in once your hoe hits the soil. Your farmer will move on its own to the next
spot and swing again. Then you just repeat the button presses until you're finished.

It becomes easier to make rows after you upgrade your hoe. Raise Sheng's friendship to 2
White Flowers and then watch the message board in Konohana Town. After accepting his
normal tool upgrade request and selecting the Hoe, you just have to pay the blacksmith
5000 G to upgrade the hoe to level 2. You can then hold down the A button to make
longer rows and you don't have to worry about quickly pressing A + direction to connect
the soil together.

If you don't do anything with the tilled soil, it will return to being untilled after
seven days. Another seven days later and the tall grass will reclaim the land. You will
have to cut and till the soil again if you want to use it.

Watering Your Crops

Your crops need to be watered once per day. Simply fill up your Watering Can at your water trough and
then use it on your planted seeds. For single-planted crops you have to water each one at a time, but if
you have your crops in rows then one use of the can will water all of the crops. Very convenient!

The crop's soil will dry out after 12 hours, allowing you to water the crop a second time. Watering your
crops twice per day will speed up the time required for the crop to mature. Because this version of Harvest
Moon has mid-day weather changes, the changes will affect the crop growth:

All day sunny = You can water once and then a second time 12 hours later

All day rainy = Can't water your crops and rain counts for one-water that day

Sunny -> Rainy at 1:00 pm = Only get one-water that day, even if you watered before the rain started

Rainy -> Sunny at 1:00 pm = If you wait until 6:00 pm then the soil will dry and you can water a second time that day

Snowy weather does not count for watering your soil. When growing crops in Winter, you will still
need to manually water your crops.

Using Fertilize to Increase Star Rank

In order to win the Konohana crop festivals you will need to increase the star rank of the
crops you grow. Higher star ranks also increases the amount of profit you earn when you
ship the crops.

Each half star on a star rank is worth 30 Star Points. The 5th star will appear when you
reach 271 SP (with a maximum of 300 SP). To increase a crop's star rank, you need to place Fertilizer next to the
crop in your field. Each day the Fertilizer will give your crop 1 SP. Fertilizer can be bought from
Gombe's Seed Shop in Konohana Town for
1000 G each. He will randomly sell it all year long so keep an eye out for it. To use the Fertilizer,
hoe the ground next to your crop and then plant the Fertilizer as though you were planting crops.
The Fertilizer will stay there, giving your crop 1 SP every day, until it is used up. Any crop touching
the 3x3 square around the placed Fertilizer will gain a point each day. You do not need to water a Fertilizer stick.

Re-harvestable crops will still increase in star rank if you keep Fertilizer next to it!

One way to fertilize your crops is with a single planting surrounded by Fertilizer sticks. Each day
the crop will gain 8 SP. When there is only one crop to fertilize, the stick will last quite a long
time.

The faster way to increase your star rank is to bombard your crop with a lot of Fertilizer by
placing the sticks in a furrow. This allows you to earn as many points as sticks that you have placed
in the rows, expanding the number of points to more than 8 SP per day. You will need to have the money
to buy a lot of Fertilizer, but the results are accelerated compared to the block-of-8 method.

Once your crop has reached 5-stars you may want to convert it back to seeds so you don't have to go
through the whole process over again. You will need to get the first Rice Paddy constructed on the Konohana
Farm in order to unlock the Seed Maker. The first Rice Paddy request will become available after you
have expanded the Konohana crop field tree times and then complete the "Rice Paddy and Waterwheel"
construction request.

The Seed Maker will take a crop and turn it into two bags of seeds, preserving the crop's star points.
Seeds can be stored in your horse cart and do not lose freshness or star rank.

You can't pick up Fertilizer once it has been planted. You have to wait until it is used up or you
can smash it with your hammer. If there isn't a crop to fertilize next to the stick, the Fertilizer won't
be used and will sit there until you destory or use it up.

Besides the basic Fertlizer sticks for sale at Gombe's, you can have the Oracle craft special fertilizer.
Visit her house on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday between 4:00 pm and 9:00 pm to find her standing
in front of her alchemy pot. If you bring her the right ingredients and 1000 G, she will give you special fertilizer.

The Bounty Fertilizer will give you the harvestable crop multiplied by how many sticks you use. If you
are growing a Turnip you usually only get one crop when you pick it, but if you put a Bounty Fertilizer next to
it, then you will get two Turnips when you harvest. A second Bounty Fertilizer will get you three Turnips,
and so on.